I just bought the E-17. The reason I bought it was to improve the SQ of both my sources (HP probook - cheap laptop and Samsung GS3), My laptop was sounding better (better clarity, SQ) than my GS3. I also recently got the T-Peos H-100. These IEM has so little mids but with very good treble extension. Probably the treble overwhelms the other ranges. I thought the E-17 could help a bit but the difference is very marginal, The questions I have about the E-17 are:

Should I be getting much better SQ with the E-17?

Does the E-17 have some auto-equalizing feature? The mids seems better on some songs automatically

If i use my GS3 or laptop will the E17 with the audio line out or USB, will the E-17 take over both the DAC and AMP functionality of both my source?

I haven't got the USB OTG cable to test out my GS3 but as long as the android version is 4.11 and above, it should work, right?

Would it have been a better option to just get some DAP for better SQ like Fiio X3, Sansa clip, Ibasso etc than taking the E-17 route?

Do the E-17 need burn-in?

If I leave the screen on the E-17 permanently on, is it ok, otherwise every time you want to operate it, you will have to switch the 'hold' button

Before getting into the questions, I'll ask the one question that should be at the top of your list: what quality media are you trying to playback?

I ask because 9 / 10 times, when you buy new equipment and notice next to nothing change, it's due to the quality of the media being poor, or the source device being poor (such as a cell phone, and media playback being youtube rips or variable compression MP3, etc).

Personally I would suggest you get a decent portable DAP, instead of using your phone. That will solve a ton of problems there. And then, again, without knowing, massive recommendation to getting high quality music to playback (just because it's lossless or near lossless doesn't mean it's high quality, many albums are just poorly recorded and there's nothing you can do to make them sound better, they just sound worse when you climb the quality later with gear).

The reason I got the E-17 was so that I can have a good DAC/AMP combo without worrying about the source or a dedicated DAP. Plus I thought by getting the E-17, I can get the same quality SQ regardless of the source.

btw, Can you recommend a good mastered album, so I can try it out? Thanks.

My understanding is that the S3 and E17 only work in USB audio mode with USB Audio Recorder PRO, not regular media players. Perhaps that has changed in recent months if there has been an Android upgrade to the S3.

The E17 does not have some automatic EQ function. The mids probably seem better on some songs because the mids are different on some songs, and the E17 is doing a better job of driving the headphones and/or providing better clarity/detail resolution.

Make sure that you are not clipping the audio signal with your media playback device. If you are boosting EQ and/or listening to modern music without replay gain/volume leveling enabled for playback, could be the sound is being distorted at the digital level BEFORE going to the E17.

I'm not using EQ with poweramp but I'm using the Noozoxide sound processor. Should the volume on my source be set to maximum? If the E-17 is doing all the AMP/DAC functions (bypassing the source assuming) should the distortion still happen.

On my laptop I've changed the settings to SPDIF because only that option is available for E-17 when I plug in under USB. I've also changed the sample rate and bit depth from windows default to 2 channel, 24 bit, 4410hz (studio quality). Since I'm bypassing the audio output of the laptop Soundmax card, I assume the default setting for it, with the 'Enable Sonic Focus Processing" checked wouldn't make any difference because now it bypasses the soundmax card on my laptop.

If you are using SPDIF, you may not be bypassing any of the digital sound processing related to the sound card--the SPDIF output is coming from your soundcard, so it's still active. USB completely bypasses the sound card. Try USB and see if you hear a difference.

Do I need to do any manual setting for getting it to USB interface? Plus for the output from E-17, I'm using the headphone out and not the SPDIF output and I don't think my laptop even has SPDIF. What does windows actually say when you connect E17 to your system? USB Interface? Do I need to download any drivers from Fiio?